From Matthies's book: "The Sarah Whitman Hooker house which was standing as early as 1763 came into the possession of the Hookers in 1773. Mrs. Hooker guarded two British officers, prisoners of war, in 1775 at the orders of the General Assembly of Connecticut. These officers stayed with Mrs. Hooker nearly a year. The elm, said to over two hundred and fifty years old, was planted in front of the house by Bristol, a slave of the Hooker family, who was later given his freedom by them. The paper granting his freedom is still in existence. The elm is the fourth largest in the state and its measurements in 1933 were: circumference at one foot from the ground, twenty three feet, nine inches; at four and one half feet from the ground, seventeen feet, four inches; diameter at four and one half feet from the ground, five feet, six and one half inches; spread of branches, sixty-five feet; and height, ninety feet."